Playing nuclear Russian roulette

     In this morning’s Watchdog, Teri Sforza describes a study of U.S. nuclear power released yesterday by the Union of Concerned Scientists.
     Written by the respected David Lochbaum, the study includes such factoids as this: “The Nuclear Regulatory Commission reported 14 ‘near-misses’ — i.e., significant safety- and security-related events — at America’s 104 nuclear reactors last year.”
     According to Lochbaum, the NRC does a good job as far as it goes, but they definitely have trouble seeing the forest for the trees:

“The NRC must draw larger implications from narrow findings for the simple reason that it audits only about 5 percent of activities at every nuclear plant each year,” the study says. “The agency’s limited-scope audits are designed to spotcheck whether an owner’s testing and inspection regimes are ensuring that a plant complies with regulations. Those regimes, if fully adequate, should find and correct any and all safety problems, leaving none for NRC inspectors to identify.

     The upshot? We’ve been playing nuclear Russian roulette. And we’ve been lucky. So far.

     • San Onofre Nuke Plant Needs Inspection Now, Say Senators Boxer and Feinstein (OC Weekly; Nick Schou)
     • County Human Relations Commission Reacts to Yorba Linda Protest (Voice of OC)